The Tata Nano, as we all know has faced a King's share of political reality in the recent past. In a rare first, the Tata Nano made itself visible to a group of people residing in the hilly town of Gopeshwar in Chameli district, to taste road reality! Residents of Gopeshwar got a rare glimpse of the Rs 1 lakh Tata Nano car parked on a roadside.
As everyone under the sun knows, the Tata Nano is bound to be the world’s cheapest car, which will be available to customers in India at an approximate price of $2,500 (Rs.1 lakh) plus another Rs.25,000 to that for the on-road price of the Nano.
It seems the Tata Nano was taken out on a tough terrain test drive to simulate the extreme Indian road conditions. It will be launched in B-class cities of Uttarakhand first, therefore, testing the Nano’s road worthiness in bad roads and hilly terrain is a priority. The world's cheapest car was back after leaving behind the rugged roads of Uttarakhand, reaching picturesque Gopeshwar in the Garhwal Himalayan region.
'Mileage of 17-20 Kmpl on tough terrain'
The Tata Nano, which was test-driven in the toughest of conditions is said to have returned a mileage of 17-20 km per litre in the hills. Tata Motors' engineers said that they conducted the test drive of Nano now in the hills of Uttarakhand and earlier in the highways of Pune.
'To be launched in the First quarter of the next Financial year'
It is expected that Tata Motors will launch the Tata Nano the first quarter of the next financial year, the official said. The exact date of the launch is yet to be decided by the looks of it, a launch in April 2009 is more likely.
The company has already given a commitment to Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri that it would roll out the first Nano from the state, so, an Uttarakhand launch would happen very soon. Tata Motors in fact is not new to Uttarakhand, it currently manufactures its Ace trucks at the Pantnagar facility in the state. Hence, Tata has gone one step further in considering to set up a permanent manufacturing facility for Nano at Pantnagar. A financial daily reported that the state government has been trying to lure Tata Motors to set up a permanent plant for the Nano at Pantnagar.
For expansion, the company has been allotted 45 acres of extra land at Pantnagar by the state government. A decision in this regard was taken by a 'High-powered committee' headed by Khanduri, which met there on December 22.
A popular UK Car Magazine had a brief test drive in the Nano a month back, and came away impressed that such a small, ultra cheap car could offer relatively good comfort and driving habits in such a small, cost-effective package.
Whether Tata offers us a car or not, it would be easy for IAB to snag the Nano once it is with dealers and take it for a test drive. We just can't wait!
